Where is the Meal? is a series of five events responding to the question of how meals relate to place, and its cultural, political, technological and legal conditions.
Each event is comprised of a meal, designed collaboratively by the event organisers and two invited guests and prepared for an audience of up to 30 people, at different places in London. Each individual event serves to both perform the topic of the meal, and engage the guests and audience into a relevant discussion. The project has three aims: First, it serves as a way to create and intensify connections with both academics and civil society actors for a future research bid. Secondly it tests the collaboration with these other actors through a practice research activity directly tied to the bid. Finally, it is a public event that brings discussions around how meals relate to places to relevant academic and non-academic audiences in these places themselves.
Community Kitchens
This event explores temporal and situative community building: How do meals come to be in places that are neither restaurants (public) nor private? What are the tensions that emerge when running a community kitchen, allotment or garden in a cultural or educational institution?
Guests: Marina Monsonís (workshop leader at The Kitchen community programme in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona), and Ros Gray, Reader in Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Date and Location: 19 March 2024, 5-8pm at Goldsmiths, University of London. The event will take place at the Goldsmiths Allotment outside the Department of Anthropology. If it rains, it will be relocated to RHB 150.
See more information on the Community Kitchens page and register for the event on the TicketSource event page.
Conflictual meals
Places that are designed for food preparation/consumption, but have been contested (e.g., the area for barbecues in Burgess Park): What happens when different user groups have different ideas of how a meal in public should look like?
Guests: Alex Rhys-Taylor, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Goldsmiths, and Valerie Rosa, Migrant and Ethnic Business Organiser of Latin Elephant.
Date and Location: 4th May 2024, 1-4pm Burgess Park, on the grounds between Lynn AC Boxing Club (by Wells Way) and Chumleigh Gardens.
See more information on the Conflictual Meals page and register for the event on the TicketSource event page.
Food Oasis
Alternative food practices that counter food deserts. How are places defined by the absence of healthy and/or affordable food and specifically, the logistics of bringing food to specific areas?
Guests: Sistah Stella Headley, Co-Founder or Rastafari Movement UK Wellbeing; Simone Riddle, Food Justice Programme Manager at Lewisham Local; Hugh Lort-Phillips, UK programme’s director of Action Against Hunger; and Michael K. Goodman, Professor of Environment and Development/Human Geography at Reading University.
Date and Location: 14th May 2024, 6-8pm (prep starting at 5pm), Goldsmiths Community Centre (Castillon Rd, London SE6 1PH).
See more information on the Food Oasis page and register for the event on the TicketSource event page.
Meals without address
Areas that are not legally definable, do not have an address, and are not amenable to food provision. Which places could become meal places that are not yet meal places? How are mobile technologies (and, specifically, the development of delivery services to geographical coordinates rather than house addresses) change where meals take place?
Guests: Regan Koch, Senior Lecturer in Human Geography and Director of the City Centre at Queen Mary University of London, and Viktor Bedö, Institute of Experimental Design and Media Cultures in Basel.
Date and Location: 23rd May 2024, 6-8pm (prep starting at 5pm), Thames Beach (central London).
See more information on the Meals Without Address page and register for the event on the TicketSource event page
Contested Places
In large cities like London, where commuting journeys can take up a lot of time, many people take the opportunity to eat in public transport. Different types and forms of food consumption can lead to issues around the use of public transport as a contested space.
In this event we want to collectively explore the (unwritten) rules for eating on the go, by having a meal in motion.
Guests: Tim Edensor, Professor of Social and Cultural Geography at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Date and Location: Saturday 14th June 2024, 1-4pm. Starting point St George’s Gardens (by St George-in-the-East Church), 5min walk from Shadwell DLR station.
See more information on the Contested Places page and register for the event on the TicketSource event page
